A New Boredom
Jangle pop, art punk, grindcore, death metal and more.
Been a while!
This past Friday, I was busy getting ready to go camping and was unable to do my usual Friday new music post, and now today I’m finding myself overwhelmed as we get ready to leave town yet again this weekend.
That said, I’m going to try and do a combo-post to get y’all through until I return on September 17th.
First off, here’s a photo I took while camping in Killbear Provincial Park. Campfires were built, Fluffernutter sandwiches were consumed, and a beautiful bay was swam in. I need more of this in my life. This picture was a particularly pretty moment from our walk back after swimming in Blind Bay.
Anyway, here’s some notes about new music released today, and then some reviews to keep you busy until later in the month.
Hot damn, there’s a new one from the Fastbacks! More on that later.
I have not been the hugest fan of post-revival Duster albums, but they do scratch a certain itch. I will of course be trying out their latest.
Interesting day for aggro records, with new ones from Nails, Concrete Winds, Teeth and some more.
And now, some thoughts and reviews. Hope you have a good September y’all.
Icon legend:
⛏️ denotes picks of the week.
🌱 seedling denotes albums I liked, but may grow on me.
✨ means worth a look, if you like the genres listed in particular.
As always, please reach out on the hellsite if you’d like or better yet join the Rosy Overdrive Discord server where I can be found now and again. You can also find me in the corners of Rate Your Music scrounging for obscure emo, hardcore, indie-rock and pop-punk.
Don’t forget: if you’re reading this in your email it will be cut off. Read on the web for the full list of reviews!
⛏️ Fastbacks - For WHAT Reason! (2024)
Genre: Power Pop, Alternative Rock
Fastbacks are one of my favourite bands, but another one who were stricken by the uneven album bug. Don't get me wrong, Very, Very Powerful Motor and Zücker are two of my all time favs but I would never argue that they aren't top-heavy or don't have some filler on them. But they're a band whose highs are so very high, so sugary sweet and addictive that I will spend days listening to all their work.
So a new album from them, their first in 25 years, is a big deal for me. And it's a really solid reunion record to boot. If you like the Fastbacks' brand of punk-pop with flourishes of guitar heroics, this is more of that! It's a pinch uneven in some ways that all their records are, but it is also only 32 minutes and they have tightly focused most of these songs outside of their one indulgence (a 7-minute closer.) The rest are simple, punk-pop songs by the band that damn near perfected simple, punk-pop songs on those aforementioned albums.
I love the Fastbacks so much, and I'm very happy to have 'em back for another record in 2024.
⛏️ The Softies - The Bed I Made (2024)
Genre: Twee Pop, Jangle Pop, Slowcore, Dream Pop
Another album released recently from a band that has spent 24 years or so in between full lengths. I've long been a fan of Rose Melberg (Go Sailor, Tiger Trap etc.) and Jen Sbragia's (All Girl Summer Fun Band, Kissing Book) autumnal twee as The Softies (particular their 1995 debut, It's Love) and hearing that they had a new album in the works was a pretty big deal.
And a new one from The Softies it is. Drumless guitar pop jangle and vocals so gorgeous that you will swear you can see the condensation vapours in the air as you listen. Haters might say it's all too simple, too similar, but this is total mood music for me and I really love listening to The Softies in the fall, so this lands at just the right time as the weather starts to turn chilly. Worst thing about this is possibly that there isn't anything as immediately huge melody-wise as stuff like "Hello Rain", but that's a high mark to hit for anyone. That this is a new, consistent record from a now-legacy act? That's great to me.
⛏️ Melt-Banana - 3+5 (2024)
Genre: Noise Rock, Experimental Rock, Post-Hardcore, Art Punk, Glitch, Hardcore Punk, Synth Punk
There should be really lofty anticipation for the first album in 11 years from a band like Melt-Banana, but this snuck up on me so fast it was already out by the time I realized it existed. This continues the band's slight evolution from the experimental noise core of their early work to the even more experimental art punk and sci-fi synths of their later work. This is still incredibly fast, loud, abrasive and very layered music but with the band's trademark ability to make it melodic.
At 24 minutes, it's one of the shorter albums from the band (by maybe 5 - 10 minutes tops, this is a band generally known for brevity) but it is as potent as ever. Like Fetch before it, this is a very concise and dang near accessible example of what the band does best. A welcome return for one of the greats.
🌱 Ex Pilots - Motel Cable (2024)
Genre: Noise Pop, Slacker Rock, Power Pop, Shoegaze
There's a lot of touchstones here that you can make reference to when listening, like 90s slacker indie rock, jangly pop, and buzzy guitar-music of the 00s etc.
What I particularly liked about this, even as it gravitates around well-trodden genres like noisy indie and shoegaze textures, is that it never outright "becomes" those genres. Dabbling helps them avoid sounding like yet another gaze band, yet another throwback act, etc. Everything is in service of power-poppy melodies, buried under a layer of orchestrated fuzz.
Not going to blow you away, but it does bring some nostalgia up for when you could surf your way to some obscure indie rock blogs and download a few albums of this quality every week or two back in the 00s. Effective and satisfying.
Nails - Every Bridge Burning (2024)
Genre: Grindcore, Metalcore, Crust Punk, Metalcore
Nails are gonna Nails. This is pleasing to me, as someone who likes grind being mixed with grind-adjacent elements, but even as someone who was a casual listener to their other albums, this feels a little unmemorable. I certainly enjoyed my time with it, it is definitely suitably heavy and aggressive with some fun fuck you up riffs ("Dehumanized"), but I am really unsure about this sticking to my brain for very long after it ends.
✨ The Decibels - Create Action (1998)
Genre: Power Pop
Late-90s power pop rock and roll in the vein of The Hi-Fives. That Adam Schlesinger song from the Tom Hanks movie also came to mind once or twice while listening to it. If you like those kind of bands that feel like they are made up of pop punk guys playing power pop throwbacks with a sprinkle of grit-less speed, you'll like most of this. It's repetitive to a fault, but when it hits it is catchy and effective.
And finally…. more thrash/death/metal etc. reviews!
I just knew that I was gonna end up back on a thrash/death kick… and in the past week, it happened.
✨ Nocturnus - Thresholds (1992)
Genre: Technical Death Metal, Death Metal
I really enjoyed The Key and so I knew eventually I would need to listen to the follow-up. This is more sci-fi technical death metal with hints of synth/keyboards peppered in the background tastefully. The follow-up cranks the sludge knob up on the production, which I guess is a problem for some people but doesn't bother me.
My main complaint would be tossing a pretty mid instrumental in the third track position, which kind of derailed my interest even though it has a sub-three minute run time. Thankfully "Arctic Crypt" gets things back on track and includes some dope synth flourishes to cap itself off.
I would agree with the review from Forever_Underground on Rate Your Music that basically says this is a messier album but it has really great peaks. Second half rips pretty hard in particular.
⛏️ Sepulcher - Mausoleum Tapestry (2015)
Genre: Thrash Metal, Death Metal, Crust Punk, Death Doom Metal
This is so good. Thrash-death that retains a crusty punk foundation, with incredibly nasty production. When it has that punk-thrash vibe, it reminded me a little bit of A Feast for the Fallen, which is a deep cut but a personal fav of mine. Very brutal and heavy but remains dynamic and engaging throughout. Had a great time listening to this.
🌱 Purtenance - Member of Immortal Damnation (1992)
Genre: Death Metal, Death Doom Metal
Really deep, bassy death metal with cavernous production and some doom metal aspects. I had to get past the burpy, unintelligible elements of the singer here, which is always one of my biggest hurdles when it comes to death metal singers of a certain type.
There's definitely stretches of this where it dips into the kind of death metal that bores me, but then they will switch things up with really simple but fun slow-and-heavy sections. Or they'll have a song like "In the Misty Morning" which bops back and forth between death blasting and a surprisingly jumpy rhythm section performance.
The all around fetid atmosphere of this album certainly carries it through their weaker moments from a songwriting perspective, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
✨ Atheist - Unquestionable Presence (1991)
Genre: Technical Death Metal, Progressive Metal, Technical Thrash Metal, Jazz Fusion
More technical metal of the death, thrash and progressive variety. When I first heard Piece of Time, I was wandering a little outside the confines of straight-forward technical thrash so their death metal elements were still kind of foreign to me. Now that I've explored death metal a pinch more, something like this album sounds way more like a bubbling cauldron of genres. Maybe they had more standard death in their sound on Piece of Time but here they're really all over the map, earning their jazz fusion sub-genre tag, if not just barely. Definitely a lot of progressive elements in here and lots of fun slappa da bass moments, but not so many that it becomes the focus of their sound.
Just a lot of really good hard riffs, technical wankery and more sick riffs. Very enjoyable, and another album that gets its out-there tendencies while still being 32 minutes long. That's what's up.
✨ Demigod - Slumber of Sullen Eyes (1992)
Genre: Death Metal
This came up on Spotify and is listed as 2022 and I truly thought it was a modern death metal act. I just assumed they were REALLY good at imitating early 90s death haha.
This works in all the elements of death metal that often bore me, but they seem really good at structuring these songs and having interesting passages to link together their furious assault of riffs. Definitely enjoy when they toss in mid-tempo Bolt Thrower-esque sections with crushing heaviness.
Only real complaint here, as usual, is the length, but otherwise, sick stuff.
✨ Therion - Beyond Sanctorum (1992)
Genre: Death Metal, Heavy Metal
Pretty sick, all over the place Swedish death metal. A lot of this throws other ingredients into the mix like songs that stick with a mid-tempo stomp and then blast you with some groove-esque riffing or speedy blasts out of left field. Not even sure about it being main genre tagged as death tbh.
They keep the tone really vile and dank, particular with the vocals. I'm not a trve death metal bro but I feel like reactions to some of these elements might not be positive from listeners that come for standard death. I love the slow ass headbang riff opening of "Enter the Depths of Eternal Darkness" but maybe someone that just wants their blast beats would hate it.
I generally prefer variety over a lack of it, so this was really entertaining to listen to for me. As far as I can tell though the band turns symphonic/progressive eventually so this strikes a really good balance of genres to my ear. I also like the kind of gross, cavernous production.
✨ Funebre - Children of the Scorn (1991)
Genre: Death Metal
This sounds, to me, like a nice blend of death metal and some more melodic elements. Maybe not straight up melodeath but like other reviews mention, sometimes the riffs will drop into near hard rock riff territory, but in a cool way that doesn't betray the heaviness of the album overall and probably stems from the genre's roots in thrash metal. The gritty guitar tone helps too.
An interesting record for its time for sure, and an enjoyable one.
Desultory - Bitterness (1994)
Genre: Melodic Death Metal
Dipping my toes now into some early melodic death metal. I can certainly see why to some true heads this kind of thing would be far too soft and not nearly extreme enough, but I also like a fair bit of melody in my metal and don't mind scream-sing vocals like this. A little bit of a bleak, gothic-ish depressed tone in the lyrics, and a lot of those melodic lead guitar lines I feel like I hear complaints about.
Some of the mid-tempo stuff on here gets a little dreary, but I enjoyed it when they mix the melodic elements with the faster, heavier riffing.
That’s it, that’s all. Be excellent to one other.
Haven't got to your album reviews yet but love some of the songs from your playlist. Bench Press and Mint Fields are probably my favourite new discoveries. Cheers!
Always appreciate when you go spelunking deep into the death metal caverns—a good reminder to give bands I haven't listened to in a while, or enough, a visit: Desultory and Therion. But also, thanks for letting me know that there's a new Concrete Winds out. Those guys are maniacal, and even when it gets too brain-splitting insane, I have to give them a listen because I was / am such a huge fan of Vorum and Degial.